The Children's Homes website aims to provide information on all the many and varied institutions that became home for thousands of children and young people in Britain. They range from orphanages, homes for those in poverty, or with special needs, through to reformatories, industrial and approved schools, training ships, and hostels. As well as each home's location, history etc. the site includes many maps, census listings, and historic images of the buildings and their inmates.

To find a particular institution, organization or locality, use the menu bar at the left, or the Search box near the top of the screen.

1 Nov 2017 - the Child Care History Network is holding a day-seminar on the subject of children's homes: What were they really like? Do they have a future? etc. Speakers include Peter Higginbotham on the history of children's homes, David Lane who will focus on what was learnt from the Northern Ireland Inquiry of which he was a panel member, and Janice Nicholson and Kevin Gallagher as speakers from the statutory and private sectors on the future of children's homes. There will also be time for debating these key issues. More details...

JUST PUBLISHED — the Children's Homes book surveys the wide range of institutions that, over the centuries, were used as a substitute for children's 'natural' homes. As well as charitably funded orphanages, these included homes run by religious or occupational groups, institutions for those who had broken the law or otherise gone astray, establishments for children with special needs, homes run by the poor law authorities, and by local councils. This fascinating and copiously illustrated volume answers questions such as: Who founded and ran all these institutions? Who paid for them? Where have they all gone? What was life like for their inmates? And where can their records be found? Illustrated throughout, Children's Homes provides an essential account of the previously neglected history of these British institutions. More details...